


two is better than one, three is better than two

by Notawriterjustalurker



Category: Daredevil (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/F, F/M, Friendship, Humour, Multi, Smut, Threesome - F/F/M, basically everybody loves Karen, eventual OT3, matt has a soft spot for pretty girls, so does Elektra apparently, that should have been the title, the accident happened but Karen’s brother didn’t die
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-01
Updated: 2020-11-29
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:07:06
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 17,802
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23948878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Notawriterjustalurker/pseuds/Notawriterjustalurker
Summary: Karen has never really cared much for her roommates usual choice of men, that is until, she introduces her to her latest escapade, a blind law student named Matthew Murdock.
Relationships: Elektra Natchios/Karen Page, Matt Murdock/Elektra Natchios, Matt Murdock/Elektra Natchios/Karen Page, Matt Murdock/Karen Page
Comments: 59
Kudos: 53





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Have faith Karedevil shippers, I don't want to break your hearts so I'm gonna try and keep this fun, I've never written anything like this so hopefully it's not terrible 😂  
> They'll probably be at least 3 chapters depending on the rabbit holes I fall into  
> Title inspired by song Do not disturb by Halestorm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (if you're here for the threesome, it's in chapter 7)

Just six thousand more words. That's all she needed. 

It really didn't really seem like a lot compared to the gargantuan amount of drall she'd already written. If she could keep her head down and focus she might even get it done before morning, leaving her an entire day before her deadline to drown herself in beer and pizza and shitty student entertainment — it was a nice thought. But, Karen was a self proclaimed procrastinator, and _that_ was definitely wishful thinking; especially now that her fingers had stopped moving, and she was getting hungry, and she was sure Spotify had played this song three times already and —

The mattress jolted, her precious laptop making a break for the floor and sliding off her knees — "Elektra! " she tsked. "I'm working here!"

"I know I know, I'm sorry. But listen, I have to ask, manners and all that. Is it okay if I bring someone over?"

Karen rolled her eyes and pulled out her one remaining headphone, "please don't tell me you're seeing that douchebag Chris again. I don't think I can stand another meathead conversation with him about protein, or _carb loading_ or..."

" — Oh god no." Elektra said, tucking her hair back behind her ears, "..his name's Matthew."

"Uh huh. So what is he? A soccer player? A martial arts expert? Something obnoxious right?"

"He's _blind_." She whispered with a smirk.

"Blind?" Karen laughed, "you're picking up blind guys now? And you know that's actually not an occupation right?"

"See Karen _darling_ " Elektra tilts her head, "this is why you should come out with me more often," and she had that look in her eye, the look that said — 'there's something else I'm not telling you', and her hand squeezed her knee, the same way she'd squeezed it the last time they'd gone out drinking, when they'd decided to duck out of a fancy cocktail party only to land in a strip club that would, a few hours later, lead to quite possibly the worst hangover of her life. "This one's different, trust me. "And he's _so hot you have no idea,"_ she groaned, flopping back to lay flat on the mattress beside her, her hair creating a black silky veil over her face.

"But if he's blind he can't tell you how good looking you are. However will you cope?" Karen teased, sifting dark hair away from her eyes just in time to watch her eyebrows raise suggestively.

"Oh he has his ways" Elektra said, teeth biting into her lip.

"Ew okay gross."

Of course she didn't really think that. She wasn't 10. But since moving in with Elektra, she'd somehow inherited the 'frigid friend' status, apparently, by sheer contrast. Back home, Karen would never have been seen as the nerdy girl who always had her head down in her studies. Her teenage years had been more wild than most, driven mostly by a toxic mix of extreme boredom and grief. Elektra though, was never short of the warmth of a man in her bed. She had a seductive pull that Karen envied and admired greatly. Her fiery personality was addictive; everyone wanted to be seen with her — but her list of friends, real ones anyway — was small, which she supposed was a by-product of her own upbringing. Karen remembers one time being woken in the small hours of the morning to the sight of Elektra in a cocktail dress, drunk and stumbling, somehow quite elegantly, after returning from one of her fancy parties — _"I saw this, and thought of you"_ she'd whispered, sliding a small silvery bracelet into her sleepy palm, to which Karen replied groggily —

"you stole this didn't you?"

And she winked, "permanently borrowed."

Karen had been wearing it ever since.

So she clicked save on Publisher. Downed tools and straightened out her T-shirt for no reason, just before there was a knock at the door that caused Elektra to excitedly spring to her feet and prompted Karen to poise the laptop back on her knees, wholly ready to assume the _'too busy_ _working to talk'_ position at the slightest hint that this whole thing was going to be too awkward.

"Matthew. _Karen_. Karen, Matthew." 

And shit. He really was blind, like, properly blind. The stick, the glasses, the whole shabang. And she was right about one other thing too. He was absolutely gorgeous.

"Hey," he smiled awkwardly in her rough, general direction as she led him to her bed and perched him on the edge of it. 

"Quick shower," Elektra said, and immediately Karen's eyes were snatched away from her laptop screen, " _you're leaving me with him?_ " She mouthed silently, a look of vicious pleading behind her eyes, Elektra having long since disappeared behind the bathroom door.

"It's Karen, I heard that correctly, right?"

"yeah, and you're Matt? I can call you Matt?"

"Whatever you like," he said, and he reached across from where he was sitting to hold out his hand for her to shake, suddenly feeling the obligation to surge forward, moving quite a way in order to reach him; but she couldn't exactly leave a blind man hanging could she?

"What you studying Karen?"

" _Well_ ," she raised her eyebrows, "I thought I enjoyed writing, so I took journalism. Now, though, I'm not so sure," she said in jest, flicking her eyes down to her laptop and positioning her hands over the keyboard, pretending, at least, to get some work done "...and you?" She added fitfully.

"Law."

Her ears pricked up. A blind law student? A _hot_ blind law student — what an eclectic mix. "Wow. At Columbia Law? You must be a smart cookie." 

He chuckled, "Ah, I try." 

After a pause and a few mindless tappings on her keyboard she added — "You know...it's interesting, Elektra is…" she hesitated before deciding against using her first choice of words, fearing that she'd all but scare the poor man off. "She's not exactly.. _lawful_."

" _Ah_." Matt sort of bit back at his lips, "well uh, I guess we all like to rebel sometimes." 

And Karen found herself raising her brows without answering, suddenly getting the sense that she was by far and away the most uncool person in the room, having not rebelled once since she got here — not by her standards anyway. And now apparently, this blind guy was having more fun than her.

"I won't be a minute,' Elektra's voice called out, muffled by humidity and steam from behind the bathroom door. Still, it was a welcome sound that meant, soon, this awkward small talk would be over. Karen gave him a look up and down as he sat there, politely waiting. He really didn't look like Elektra's usual type — 'her usual' being much more of the _'asshole'_ variety. But Matthew seemed well mannered, good humoured, soft, even. But that didn't stop her from saying what she always did to all of Elektra's boyfriends —

"Look Matt. I don't mean to sound threatening..." Karen said, threateningly, watching as he cocked his head, "...but if you break her heart. I'll kill you."

And that made him laugh. His grin cracking open and blossoming over his face as he tipped his head back slightly and _good lord_ — what was that? 

That smile. _That damn smile_.

It was one of those rare types that could light up an entire room. The kind you couldn't help but mirror when it was shone in your direction, and so she found herself smiling too, like she had absolutely no control over her face.

"I'll treat her right, I promise," he said, moistening his lips with a tantalising dart of his tongue.

Jesus, he _was_ charming.

"You know.." he added, "...I think you'd really like my roommate, Foggy." 

She chuckled, "is he hot?" The words slipped out without a thought, her gaze darting up from her screen again, hoping, deep down, that he hadn't noticed her awful choice of words. But he had, and he was smiling again.

" _Shit_ , I'm sorry — you can't — _Jesus._ " She laughed, scraping her hair back from her forehead and praying to some unknown entity above for hole to please open up and swallow her.

"Well. No," he said, "I can't. But I know he's got a great sense of humour, like you do. And girls like that right?"

"He'd certainly like you," Elektra purred, making eyes at Karen as she sauntered from the bathroom in nothing but a towel. "No offence Matthew. Foggy's a sweetheart but he looks like — "

"— don't be mean Elektra." Karen piped up, feeling somehow quite protective of their new hot-lawyer guest.

"Well, erm. What does Karen look like?" Matt asked, sweetly, shrugging curiously. And she had to dip her head downwards to hide her flushing cheeks, which were not helped any by Elektra's quick witted and almost immediate reply —

"I think the term you're looking for is: _blonde_ _bombshell."_

" _—Elektra._ "

But she continued — "and she could have anyone she wanted... if she ever took a break from studying and left this ghastly room."

"Well, one of us has to leave this shit hole with a degree." 

"She does have a point." Matt said, seeming to jump to her defence.

Elektra laughed, "look at you two. Nerding out together." And she turned her back and dropped her towel, quickly, but not too quickly, sliding into a pair of shorts and a tank top; Karen barely batting an eye because she was pretty much used to Elektra strutting around in the nude. But Matt — Matt who was apparently blind — did somehow seem to notice. And if she was being honest she'd have described his facial expression as a mixture of child-like and, well, _surprised_.

What Karen wasn't used to though, was watching Elektra and hot law-student Matt, kiss in front of her — and it was barely even a kiss really, more of a peck that lingered a little too long, but the sound of their moist lips moulding together and coming apart stirred up a tingling feeling low in her belly that she couldn't quite place. If it were solely jealousy, she'd have probably turned away or rolled her eyes, but she didn't. She couldn't. All she could think about was how good they looked together, because they did look good, like, really good. 

"You okay if Matthew stays here tonight?"

"Sure." Karen shrugged, "but if you're gonna bang each other's brains out at least wait till I'm gone or do it in the bathroom or something."

Elektra grinned and Karen smiled and plugged her earphones back in.

*

Sleep was apparently evading Karen that particular night. About half an hour after she'd started work on her essay, Elektra had tapped her on the shoulder and asked if she wanted pizza. They'd ended up sitting on Elektra's bed, talking about, well, everything really, while they drank and ate their body weight in carbs. She'd eventually ended up dragging herself into bed at 2am, hoping the swill of cheap German beer in her stomach would will her off to sleep. Instead, she'd tossed and turned restlessly under the sheets, and not at all for the reasons she was expecting. She'd woken several times in the thick of darkness and found herself straining her ears, searching for evidence, searching for the sounds of rustling of bed covers and that one shitty spring in the mattress that always squeaked, or a moan muffled into quiet by the palm of a hand.

But no. 

Nothing. Not a peep.

She didn't wait for her alarm to go off that morning. The thought of doing something to clear her head sounded appealing. Maybe she'd make the most of the day and go for a jog, maybe some exercise would help her get her damned essay done. 

They were still asleep when she crept into the bathroom, locked the door and turned the shower on hot, in an attempt to rouse herself from her sleepiness. She leaned her forehead against the tiled wall and let the prickle of water heat the skin of her back until it was pleasantly reddened and numb. And the idea of going out there, on a freezing cold morning to exercise, suddenly seemed an entirely distant memory that she had absolutely no plans in bringing to fruition.

Fortunately, there was another, much more pleasant way she could obtain some kind of mental clarity and she was somewhat of an expert at it too because when the bathroom was the only private place you had, you work out pretty quickly, the logistics of getting yourself off in a small, very slippery shower cubicle. So she slipped a hand between her thighs and rested her fingers on that one spot that worked for her while she was standing up, willing her mind to visualise something generic, just to get her there, just to get the job done — but there was only one thing that was making her blood rise and her chest hitch and it just didn't feel right — she shouldn't — she'd only just met him. But the thought...

And she was already irresistibly wet, despite the water, and no amount of guilt was going to stop the motion of her fingers. She thought about the gritty, mellow quality of his voice, what he'd sound like when he… his hips moving against Elektra's — watching them together. Him, touching her face. What a strangely pleasant thing that would be. She wanted Matt to touch hers too, she wanted to know what he thought of her, for him to call her pretty or beautiful or that she smelled good and —

That was enough. Her legs trembled and she came hard, bliss washing over her as sure as the water flowing out of the faucet. And she allowed the tiniest of moans to slip out at an expertly balanced volume, just enough to make her feel a little naughty but not enough for anyone else to hear over the sound of the rushing water. When she was done showering it felt like a weight had been lifted. She dried and dressed herself in the rosey glow of her come down, stepping out into the comparatively cool air of the bedroom where, to her surprise, she found Matt and Elektra to be very much awake —

"Elektra — _fuck.. keep —_ " 

And on hearing him grunt, and judging by the position of Elektra's body and the bump under the duvet that was leading a long line up towards her shoulder, she suspected her hand to be wrapped around his dick. And well, she was pumping him... _enthusiastically_. And he was lying on his back, no glasses, no shirt and — well. That did answer some of her curiosities from earlier.

But now, in the space of a few arduous seconds she was faced with a near impossible decision. And although diving back into the bathroom seemed like the quickest escape, it would mean prolonging her suffering when she inevitably did have to emerge to face a very, very awkward conversation. Alternatively, she could flee forwards, leaving immediately, even though she was nowhere near ready. Both options resulted in similar levels of humiliation.

She opted for the latter.

"Uh - _shit_ , shit I'm sorry," she mumbled and fumbled as she went lurched for her shoes and her jacket, half slipping on her sneakers and hurrying out the door before either of them had a chance to say anything.

Maybe she would go for that jog after all.

  
  
  
  



	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Karen deals with the awkward repercussions of her encounter with Elektra's new boyfriend, Matt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, it's been an age! 😂  
> I finally felt I had the confidence to continue this fic a few months after starting it now that I've gathered a few more writing skills 😂  
> I hope to update every couple of weeks but not exactly sure how many chapters there's going to be yet 😏 
> 
> Thank you to the few that encouraged me to pick this back up!

Karen hadn't had time to look at the clock, but that didn't matter. She'd already decided — today was officially a wreck.

She'd overslept. Not by five or ten minutes either, but by an entire hour; a consequence she was probably naive not to expect after managing to pull off two all-nighters back to back. But also, and most critically — there was a dire lack of something warm, and liquidly, and highly caffeinated in her hand. And that just wasn't acceptable. Not when soon she would soon have to face the wrath of her professor. Even if she was a star student, and even if they were on first name terms — Mr Urich could be particularly ferocious in the mornings. 

So she moved at a pace just short of a jog, hair pulled back into an uncooperative bun that was loosening as she walked, having seriously underestimated the weather – her thin cardigan doing a poor job of protecting her from the bitter chill of the February wind.

But she was on a mission. So much so, the distant, but still ear-catchingly loud splutter of an engine coming from somewhere further down the road hardly concerned her. The kinds of people who owned those sorts of toys were mostly the kinds of people Karen tried her best to stay away from. But she did startle when the sound grew louder still. A roar of thunderous tires on asphalt; a blatant assault on her still awakening ear drums that didn't pass but got worse, the offending car crawling into her peripheral and coming to a rolling stop beside her.

"Morning sleepy head." A silky smooth purr seemed to pour out from the rolled down window, sitting just above the rumble of the engine — "bad girl. Late again?"

Karen had already readied her middle finger half expecting a cat-call, so this was an improvement on that at least. "New ride?" Karen asked, playing it cool while she took a good long look along the cars length: a black and red striped Ford Mustang, which by the looks of it had just rolled off straight off the forecourt.

"You like?" 

"I do." She paused. "Is it yours?" 

Elektra hummed and scrunched up her face, making no effort to hide the truth that Karen already knew — "until we get caught," she said, and Karen grinned and then made up for it with a disapproving tutt, conscious now of how everyone within a hundred yard radius was staring at them.

" _We_?"

"Yes, we. C'mon Karen, you're not really going to go to class today are you? You're months ahead of everyone else. You said it yourself."

"Yes. But that's not really the point is it? Plus, Ben —"

"Bunk it. Go on. _Live a little_ ." And it was hard to resist that smirk at the best of times, something about it really did invite you towards the darkness as if it were an old, familiar friend. And yeah, she had to admit, she missed that sometimes — the white, hot rush of being just a little bit _bad_.

So with that she gave in. Shaking her head, with a smile tucked somewhere behind her palm as she stepped off the curb, opened the door and landed heavily in the passenger seat, the velvety feel of brand new leather, cool on the back of her thighs. "Where we headed?" The engine chortled and snapped as the car pulled off into motion and Karen considered whether she should be worried about getting into a fast moving vehicle with someone who's impulse control was questionable at best.

"The Bahamas, Paris?" Elektra answered in a mock-French accent, "wherever you like." And after a few minutes of driving, a left and then a right, then another left, a route that was sure to lead them away from campus onto open roads; Elektra did her best to address the elephant in the room — to break the ice, even if figuratively, she'd never so much as heard or ice, never mind broken it before — "Want to talk about what happened?" She said as a courtesy, Karen suspected, because from what she knew about Elektra's love language; showing you off in one of her favourite shiny things was as much of a sorry as you were ever going to get.

"Elektra, it's no big deal. Really." And she wasn't lying, not exactly. Though, she was still unpacking some stuff she really thought she would have gotten over by now, not just because being Elektra's friend, possibly even her best friend, made Elektra's boyfriends decidedly off limits. "I feel sorry for Matt, though. Is he.. uh —"

"— Oh don't worry about him," she huffed, "it was his idea anyway." Karen laughed, a little surprised, turning her head towards the window where she hoped her embarrassed smile would go unnoticed. "You made quite the impression on him you know." 

"Impression?"

"He asked if you're coming to the party at the weekend. I said I'd convince you"

"Oh." 

Elektra rolled her eyes. "Well? Are you going to make me convince you?" 

"Since when have you ever had to convince anyone Elektra?"

"It's a date then." She agreed, satisfaction curled up in her lips, "maybe we can find you a little something there. Lots of lovely rich boys. With lovely deep pockets."

Karen frowned, "I think I'm allergic," her shoulder thumped the door as Elektra took the next turn a just a fraction too fast.

"Allergic to money?" She asked, offended.

"No! To men." 

" _Oh_.." and she could tell there was a moment between Elektra deciding on whether to leave it at that, or whether to pry further, and it was never really a question as to which one she would eventually pick — "okay. I've got to ask." 

Karen sighed.

"It's your silly ex isn't it? Whoever he is. C'mon, what did he do?"

"Long story."

"We've got time," she said, Karen side-eyeing her with an expression that she hoped wasn't a reflection of how she actually felt — watching as Elektra seemed to look at everything _but_ the road in front of her.

"I shot him. To cut it short. _Grazed_ him really." And her words seemed to fall off a cliff and into an abyss of silence. Not something that usually happened around Elektra because it was rare she was ever short of an opinion. But nope. Nothing. Nothing but unspoken words, and the growl of the engine and the Elektra's sinister smile splitting her lips like a blade. "Why are you smiling like that?"

"No reason," she said, "I just knew there was a reason I liked you." And Karen found her cheeks reddening for some reason she couldn't explain — "that's a compliment, by the way," Elektra added, "and anyway, how come you're not in jail?" 

Karen shrugged, "small town I guess. No one's up to anything good. No one likes cops much either."

"Mmm. Interesting."

Karen knew that sound — knew it well. It was the sound of a light bulb pinging on inside Elektra's head; an idea being toyed with the way a cat might toy with its terrified prey. And it meant she was about to do something reckless — something utterly stupid — something _fun_.

"I have an idea." She beamed, glancing back into the rear view mirror before pulling the car to a stop at the nearest lay-by. "Your turn"

"No no no. I can't drive this."

"Sure you can."

"I can't."

"Sweetie,"Elektra urged, calm, with a hand splayed on her knee, "if you can put a bullet into someone, you can take this old rust bucket for a spin."

"And if we get pulled over?" Karen said, "what then?"

Elektra smirked and lifted her shoulder to meet the knife-sharp edge of her jaw — "drive fast."

* * *

"So, buddy — what are your four, _fine_ senses telling us we should have for lunch today? I'm Hank Marvin."

"Didn't you just eat an hour ago?" 

"Exactly! An entire hour!" Foggy exclaimed, "it takes energy to shift this muscular frame around you know."

"— Wait." Matt froze, "muscular? You're muscular? Awh. Shit, I wish I could see it man."

"Ah but you can _feel_ it —" Matt heard Foggy say through playfully gritted teeth, his guiding arm tensing up — "pure masculinity. Fueled by tacos."

"Fueled by tacos?" Matt laughed, his face mirroring Foggy's infectious smile. "That's awfully convenient seeing as it's Taco Tuesday." 

"Right again my friend! Deliciously mediocre tacos and cheap beer and wait. _Wait —"_

"What, Foggy? What is it?" 

" _Holy mother of_ _macaroni._ I think I — I think I might be... _"_

"..Foggy.. don't leave me hanging here…" but Matt was playing ignorant. He'd sensed it too. There was something in the breeze just up ahead of them. A familiar entity with a vaguely recognisable and _very_ pleasant sensory outline, and Matt was almost certain now that they were both reacting to the same thing — 

"The chick coming up on your right. I'm pretty sure she's my wife."

And instead of protesting the usual: commenting something along the lines of how Foggy really ought to stop abusing his 'wounded duck' status as a method of enticing unsuspecting women into his bedroom — he found himself equally drawn to the woman approaching them. Her steady walk, light and fast, arms clutching something to her chest. Honeyed lavender and a hint of something else too — diesel maybe? Leather. And as she got closer he began to sense all of the other tiny intricacies that were getting kicked up in the wind between them — little imprints of Elektra all over her arms, like they'd been together in a confined space for a while. And her heart rate was up, which meant she had probably seen him, and for a moment he wondered why she might react in that way, right before he remembered the exact circumstances of their departure and he consequently found himself somewhere close to blushing.

"K — Karen?" He called out without thinking, sensing Foggy's mouth catching flies behind his shoulder.

"Matt? Hi. I didn't — wait. How did you?.." 

"Your perfume." Matt replied, "erm. I have a pretty good nose." 

"Lots of girls wear perfume," Karen countered.

Matt flinched."Lucky guess?"

And he could tell by the crease between her brows and the way the muscles around her lips twisted that she was anything but satisfied with that answer. Even more frightening than that was that she would probably have no qualms about questioning a blind man.

Karen Page was not someone you wanted catching you in a lie.

" — sorry," Matt stuttered, feeling Foggy practically chomping at the bit, "Karen, this is Foggy, my roommate. The one I told you about. Foggy, this is Karen. Elektra's, um, friend."

"Foggy Nelson." He held out his hand, " _the_ Foggy Nelson. Pleased to meet you." 

Karen chuckled, a beautifully sweet sound that he'd caught himself getting a little too attached to a few nights previous. 

"Matt's told me all about you. I've heard great things."

"Oh yeah? Well believe it cause it's all true. And don't tell Matt I'm the more handsome one of the two of us," he hushed, "l've been keeping it a secret since the day we met."

Karen giggled and Matt sensed her take a quick up and down glance in his direction — "secrets safe." He knew he shouldn't be thinking this way about his girlfriend's roommate. He already knew too much, had already let his senses run away with him one to many times, and now every moment he spent with her was only destined to wind the coil of guilt in his stomach up tighter — 

"We're getting tacos!" Foggy announced too enthusiastically.

 _"Foggy's_ getting tacos." Matt corrected.

"Do you want to —"

"She doesn't want to have tacos with us Foggy."

Actually," Karen interjected,"I wouldn't mind. Only I'm really late. Like, _really_ late." She glanced down at her phone that was clutched tightly within her palm "I should —"

"You sleep in?" Matt asked, and Foggy shook his head.

"Students these days. So lazy."

"Maybe you should ask your girlfriend about it later." 

Matt felt his eyebrows raise beyond the safe confines of his glasses. " _Okay_. Erm. Actually, Karen..wait —" His hand reached out and he pawed at the air a little helplessly somewhere in the vicinity of her wrist and he found her immediately taking sympathy on him, wrapping both her hands around his forearm in a comforting hold that sent little tingles through to his bones. "Before you go —" he said, practically hearing the slow drawl of Foggy physically rolling his eyes — "can I ask you something?" And there was a moment of punctuated quiet matched by a change in air pressure that Matt always knew to be indicative of a nod. "You just nodded, right?"

"Oh — _shit._ sorry. Sorry —yes. _Yes_."

"Happens all the time,"Matt smiled, "listen, it's Elektra's birthday tomorrow. I uh, I was wondering.. if you knew what.. um. What flowers she likes?" 

" _Flowers_?" Karen retorted, "really?"

Matt tilted his head, "what? What's wrong with that?"

"Nothing. It's just... _God._ She's gonna eat you alive, you know that right?"

"Oh," Matt felt a dirty thought pull at the corners of his lips. "Maybe."

"I'm going to hedge a bet and say there's something more to you than meets the eye. I'm not even sure I want to know what it is."

Matt did feel himself blush a little hot then. Suddenly he felt just as wary of Karen as he was curious, because there was something about the way she looked at him — looked _through_ him — that made him feel so very vulnerable. He didn't hate it, but he didn't know if he was ready for it either — "I have a feeling you're going to make a great journalist someday Karen."

She dipped her head shyly and Foggy cleared his throat — "thanks. I hope so. Anyway, erm. Like I said, I've really got to go. My professor is gonna whoop my ass."

"Sure, yeah. Of course. Good luck —"

"— oh, and Matt?" She called back over her shoulder.

"Yeah?"

"About Elektra," she said, "for her birthday — orchids. She likes orchids."

  
  
  



	3. Chapter 3

It could have been worse. Couldn't it?

_Couldn't it?_

But the longer she stood there, waiting for the other students to leave, staring at the dark spot that her own body had cast over her shoes, the more she began to think that no — 

Maybe it couldn't.

"Does Miss Natchios have anything to do with this?" Ben's voice was stern but concerned. A disarming kind of voice that no matter the context, was never intimidating, instead, it's purpose, as Karen had learnt quickly, was to make you feel so utterly consumed by guilt that you'd rather drag yourself in drunk than risk skipping another class or missing another deadline.

"Mr Urich— "

"— Ben." He insisted.

"Sorry. Um. Ben," she leveled, stalling — _thinking. "_ It's not that. It's not Elektra, I mean. If anything, she's been helping. Things have just been a lot lately."

"And I understand that Karen. I do." He reached down and fished around amongst some papers in the drawer behind his desk and then perched himself back on the edge of it. "But if Manhattan is where you want to be… then, well, trust me when I say, it really is dog eat dog out there."

"I know, Ben. I know." She didn't know. Not really. But right now her one and only task was to grovel. "It won't happen again."

And he sighed, his crooked smile crinkling up his cheek as he pushed his thick set glasses back up towards the bridge of his nose. "I've no doubt that you're smart on paper, Karen. But what you don't know, what you shouldn't know, but what I'm going to tell you anyway, is you're talented. Real talented. Haven't had a student like you in a lot of years," he glanced down at the paper and seemed to take a moment to read a line or two from it. "If I'm really honest, I see a lot of myself in you." Karen bowed her head, flattered but uncomfortable in the face of such a compliment. "I don't want you to waste this. You understand?"

"I do," she replied.

"Good." He held out the stapled together file at arms length, and now that she was closer it had become apparent to her what it was. "Your last essay was excellent. Again," he chuckled, "but there's some feedback in there anyway, so you don't get too cocky."

Karen swallowed back a smile. "Thanks." And she took the file and tucked it away into her backpack.

"Karen." He called out, and she knew then that the journalist in him wasn't about to let her leave this room that easily. Because if there was something more to a story — any story, then you could be sure Ben Ulrich was going to find his way to the core of it. "How's your brother doing?" He said. 

Karen paused and felt her shoulders quite literally deflate — like now there was a shadow with the weight of a thousand lifetimes perched between the blades of her shoulders. "Good." She replied a little sharply — "better." Turning back around but somehow finding it nearly impossible to look Ben in the eye. "Rehab is going well, I hear. He took his first steps on his prosthetic last week."

Ben pursed his lips together sympathetically. "That's great news."

"Yeah. It is."

"Have you visited him lately?"

Karen hugged her arms around her middle and dug her fingernails into the skin at the waist. "My dad and I… we're erm.. we're still not —"

"I get it," Ben nodded, not even beginning to question her sorry attempt at an answer. Instead, he slipped off the table and brushed out the creases in his pants. "Takes time. Lots' a things take time. But it'll be okay in the end."

"I hope so," Karen added, "I just want him to have a good life. Maybe one of those cool cybotic legs that make you kind of superhuman, you know?" She emptied her lungs and let out a small husky noise that vaguely resembled a laugh. 

"I do," Ben replied simply, slipping his tweed jacket over his shoulders and grabbing his bag.

"That's why I need this Ben. I owe —" her voice wavered under the emotion balling up in her throat. "I owe it to Kevin." And yeah, it probably sounded like she was arguing her case now, bargaining with her right to be here despite the terrible things she'd done and the horrible consequences she had to live with, to a man who ironically, wanted nothing more than to watch her succeed. 

She was pleading with the wrong Gods.

"You'll do him proud, Karen." He said. And the way he spoke was so sure. So true. That Karen could quite help but believe him. "Just behave your damn self."

* * *

"It's too tight."

"It's perfect."

"I feel like a Christmas present."

"You look hot."

"I can't _breathe_ Elektra."

Elektra huffed, " _pfft_. Breathing is overrated." She gave Karen a sideways smirk as they made it up the last few steps into the main lobby, Karen towering above her, her dress slim and figure hugging and red as blood; a striking contrast against the ethereal glow of her white blonde hair.

She looked great. Of course she did. Elektra's fashion sense was nothing short of _revered_.

And leaning against the bar just up ahead of them with his less handsome sidekick clinging on like an extra limb, was the man she'd been waiting all day to get her hands on. He was wearing a striking combination too; the crisp tux paired with white cane, and dark glasses and recently reddened knuckles. She'd never get over it. How one man could walk the line between two lives so seamlessly.

"Matthew," she mmmed softly as her weight fell forward into his arms, just enough that he had to catch her. He murmured her name back as his lips molded around hers, finding herself holding him there a little longer than planned, hands wrapped around the back of his neck and bleeding into his hairline as she let herself soak in the smell of his skin.

"Get a room!" A childish voice from behind called out, Karen's giggling laugh following soon after.

"Yeah guys really. You're making us singles feel left out."

"Whoa there!" Foggy interjected, "speak for yourself K — I can call you K right?" He winked, "anyway, my harem of women will be through that door at any moment. I just didn't want you guys to feel inadequate."

"It's all true," Matt laughed, his smile finally separating their lips, although his hand stayed firm in place on the small of her back, his fingers making tactile little circles over the silk that she'd chosen exactly for the way it made him cling to her body.

"Oh I don't doubt it Mr Nelson." Karen offered her support and Elektra's eyes lazily met the ceiling. Between her charm and Foggy's preference for pretty blondes, Karen was going exactly the right way to have that chubby little man fall head over heels in love with her.

"If by hareem you mean Marci Stahl, then yes," Elektra touted, "we don't doubt you."

"To be fair," Matt countered," Marci's scary enough to qualify as at least two women." 

Foggy nodded "I sort of hate that you're right. Actually Karen, she's a lot like you," Foggy turned to her but then scrunched up his face dramatically — " _but evil_."

Karen laughed. "Speaking of evil" she said, her tone quickly catching Elektra's ear as she moved in close, forming a tiny little circle from which she could lower her voice to a shared whisper. "Did you hear about what happened a couple of nights ago? To one of the girls in first year?"

"Oh shit yeah I heard." Foggy replied.

"A student got attacked," she continued, "some asshole tried to assault her. Except that he didn't get that far." She leaned forward and lowered her voice further, "I hear some guy in a mask just busts out of nowhere and beats the crap outta him." 

Eletkra couldn't tell what her own face was doing but Karen's was a picture. Her pupils were dilated with what she could only hope was intrigue and _excitement_ — blackness seeming to eat away at the usually vibrant blue of her eyes.

"I heard that too," Matt added flatly and Elektra made a half-assed expression of surprise.

" _Really_?" 

"Yeah." Karen hushed, "and I did some digging." 

"You did?" Matt said.

"Yeah. There were two of them. One got away. And one is still in hospital. Something like six broken ribs and a broken jaw."

"Good." Elektra said, proudly.

Foggy shook his head and a ragged strand of unkempt hair fell out from behind his ear and flopped over his face. "Have people forgotten how the justice system works? I mean, vigilantism? Really? There's this thing called the law! Do you know what we are without it? Savages. Meat slinging, bone tossing, savages — "

"— I don't agree," Karen said. "There has to be people out there who are willing to make a real difference. To get to the places the law can't reach. We need heros," she added defiantly.

"You think this lawless bonehead is a hero?" 

Elektra raised her eyebrows and Matt awkwardly fiddled with his cane somewhere in her peripheral.

"Yes. I do," She said, "protecting girls from arseholes like that? Totally a hero. And a badass."

And Elektra was pretty sure Matt was gnawing on the inside of his cheek now, probably trying to distract himself from the size of the dick he was hiding in his pants — or, maybe that was just her.

"What do you think Matthew?" Elektra asked, slipping her hand under his suit jacket and delving her fingers downwards until she found skin.

"The other one that got away," Matt asked, "no one has a clue who he is?" 

"No." Karen shook her head with renewed excitement, "but I mean, it could be anyone, right? He could be here."

And for a moment there was a silence amongst the four of them as everyone except Elektra seemed to do some kind of sensory check of their surroundings; Matt probably having been up to his neck in heartbeats for some minutes already.

"Do you know who else is a badass?" Elektra quipped, bored. "Me." 

Karen at least, laughed, Elektra promptly stuffing one of the passing horderves into her mouth without bothering to check what it was. "Mmmf. These are good —" she took another and handed it to Karen. "Have you tried one?" 

"I honestly don't know how you're so skinny." 

"Mmm." She responded with her mouth half-full but not nearly as full as her hand was now that it was tucked behind her and greedily palming a generous portion of Matt's perfect ass. "Cardio," She purred just as he pulled out of her grasp and turned her towards the bar with a delightfully vice-like grip on the back of her arm.

"Moody tonight Matthew?"

"You're encouraging her." 

"How could you say such a thing?"

"She has to stop digging. Elektra. It's not safe." Elektra chuckled and Matt scowled. "What?" He whispered harshly.

"You're worried she's going to figure you out…" She sang the words out in a melody that she knew would probably rile him. 

She liked him when he was riled.

"Only if you let her."

"..perhaps I will let her."

"You wouldn't."

"Is that a threat?"

He huffed out a bitter sound, born of stubbornness and the knowledge that he was already beaten. "You'll find out later," he said quietly, flatly, into the hollow of his glass. 

"Oh but I hate waiting." She whined.

He snapped back "— well we don't always get what we want, do we, sweetheart?" And she locked eyes with him in a one way staring contest, her rapid heartbeat leaching out from under her skin as his lips curled into something devastatingly cocky.

She hated that she loved it. The intensity — infinitely charged everything — the air around them never more than a spark away from becoming something ferocious — wild, _blazing_.

What she wouldn't give to have him take her right here, right now, right on this fucking bar.

"Hey love birds!" Foggy's voice was upbeat and gleeful and _obnoxious_. "Does this dump have a pool table?" He asked as he swung his arm around Karen and pointed to her with one finger extracted away from his beer. "Asking for a friend."

"Don't look at me." Karen held up her hands, and Elektra's impatient expression faded to something softer.

"Of course it has a pool table. Rich people still play pool you idiot." 

* * *

And who knew? 

Karen Page was a sore winner. 

Her victory was loud and her hair was loose and she'd long forgotten about the tightness of her dress. She peeled Foggy's beer out of his hand and took a long swig from it — "who's next?"

Foggy jeered — "premature celebration at its finest! You haven't even versed Murdock, 'the _annihilator'_ yet." 

"Well bring it on it _Murdock, the annihilator_ ," she challenged.

Matt adjusted his glasses, "wow, no mercy."

"I like her," Foggy commented.

"I'm not going easy. And to be honest, I'm still not sure who's hustling who here." 

"Elektra, your friends are fighting!"

"Let them," she shouted back.

"Okay!"

It was dingy down here in the basement by comparison — low lit, less shiny — but Karen seemed comfortable here. Everyone seemed comfortable here. The drinks were flowing and laughter punctuated the dusty air and the music from upstairs took its roots through the walls, making it somehow bearable.

Elektra wasn't familiar with the feeling. Watching the people she wasn't supposed to care about interact with one another — usually by now she would be bored; craving something fast and unpredictable and self indulgent but tonight, right here on this couch with her glass of wine and her view of Matthew's ass as he bent over the pool table, she was feeling something she'd never had the privilege of feeling before.

She was content.

But like all good things in Elektra's life, that feeling didn't last for long. 

She'd been tracking him for a while. Watching Matt too, how he twitched and fideted — she'd become so tuned in to the little nuances of his senses over the past few weeks.

"Hey guys, do you mind if I?..." Her spine straightened and her legs uncrossed and her wine glass planted itself on the table beside her.

"Of course man, be my guest. Watch out for this one though."

Karen chuckled, "I'm not that good honestly." But Matt didn't join them in laughter.

"Ben," he replied to Karen's question, "but people call me Dex. And you, Miss?"

"Karen. Karen Page. But people call me Karen. This is Matt, Foggy, Elektra —"

" _Karen,_ " he repeated, his mouth moving mechanically, "nice to meet you. I'll try not to beat you too hard —" he scratched his head awkwardly, "at pool, I mean." 

And if Elektra had been the sort of woman who might have found herself getting the creepies over a man — which she wasn't — she'd have probably thought that comment pretty creepy. His smile was nothing short of empty. Bizarre, considering it was a good smile by all accounts — wide and creasing and maybe even a little shy.

But empty. Lacking.

"Don't go easy on him Page." Elektra offered her support from the corner and stood up, but Dex took the first shot and even though she wasn't an expert, she of all people knew exceptionalism when she saw it —

"Holy guacamole!" Foggy slapped both of his hands onto his forehead and raised his arms melodramatically. "Are you seeing this? — not you Matt — obviously. But everyone else — are you —"

"Show off." Elektra muttered.

"Was it good? It sounded good." Matt said.

"I think we're beat. Sorry Matt."

"Hey Dex, you a professional or something?" Matt asked.

"Baseball, yeah."

"Right," Matt responded coldly, Elektra catching how he squeezed his thumb inside his tight fist. "Karen?" Matt asked again, reaching blindly for her arm just a few feet away, "can you… um.."

"You wanna shot?"

"Yeah. Yeah if you don't mind, just erm, guide me." Elektra and Foggy rolled their eyes simultaneously, though probably for different reasons. 

"Okay, here," Karen bent over and ghosted her hand over Matt's arm, helping him to line up the cue.

"I feel this might be a little unfair," Dex piped up, leaning back and using his cue as a place to rest his elbow. "I mean, the guys blind."

"Congratulations. You're clearly not." Elektra scowled but it broke apart when she heard the snorting sound that Karen made as she muffled her mouth into the back of Matt's shoulder.

"Don't listen to him," Karen whispered, "line it up. Okay yeah. Right there.."

"Right here?" Matt bit his lip.

"Yep," Karen said softly, "whenever you're ready."

And he sunk the cue precisely and predictably into the white ball, the yellow ball surging towards the right hand side and subsequently landing in its designated slot, along with two more balls.

"Shit!" Karen's mouth dropped open, "Matt, you did it!"

"Is it in?" Matt's voice sounded innocently.

Karen sniggered. 

And maybe Dex was impressed or annoyed or suspect but he didn't show it. The smile he'd slipped into before had changed again into something more uncomfortable. But luckily for her, he wasn't that smart, not really, because while he was busy trying to figure out how a blind man was beating him at pool, Elektra had flanked him and had slipped her hand into his baseball jersey that had been slung over the back of one of the stools in the far corner. 

She'd pocketed his phone and about $50 dollars in cash for the fun of it.

Matt was right. There was something strange about Benjamin Poindexter.

  
  
  
  
  
  



	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay guys, I am very much making this up as I go along 🤷

  
Matt stirred as the mattress sagged underneath the weight of his back. He knew he wasn't in  _ his _ bed, he wasn't lying on top of silk sheets with his favourite pillow and two thick under-layers so he couldn't feel the springs but he was comfortable — and it certainly beat the unforgiving hardness of the floor.

But there was something off about his senses. They were sticky, sluggish, like his ears were full of jello. His tongue was glued in place, any moisture that he summoned to unstick it from where it had formed to the roof of his mouth only serving as a reminder of the cheap beer he'd undoubtedly drank too much of, lingering like the scent of last night's rain.

And it took him more than a moment to realise the source of heat surrounding him. Two sets of heartbeats, first Elektra, curled up under his right arm with her head tucked into his chest and her thigh tangled up in his, sheets flowing around her like a river. 

Waking up to her was always his favourite thing, her body, like a song that he just couldn't get out of his head; a siren that would pull him into the deep abyss if he let it.

But on the other side of him was something different than that. Something gentled and unexplored. Her back was turned to him, her hands tucked under her cheek as if in prayer; ribbons of her hair trailing over the pillow behind her, brushing against his cheek. And on the air was the unmistakable scent of lavender and rain, eyes moving quickly under closed lids — dreaming of something sweet, he supposed, he hoped.

_ Karen. _

She was so close he would only have to move an inch if he wanted to touch her. There was a blanket draped over her hips, pulled up and held close under her chin, the chilled morning air causing goose pimples to rise up on her arms and on the small of her back where her T-shirt had ridden up.

Growing up in an orphanage meant Matt had become used to having women around; their stern voices and their soft hands, his spirit guides. But this morning it felt like they were much more than that. He felt nourished, like right now nothing else had to exist outside these four walls. All that mattered was the slow inhale/exhale of their lungs, a steady ebb and flow that never ended; like one was filling up the other. 

Maybe if he didn't move — if he closed his eyes again and went back to sleep, time would stay suspended for just a little while longer.

Realistically though, there was absolutely zero chance of that. He was too awake now. Very awake in fact.

And how did he even get here? 

He thought it odd that he couldn't remember. There was no sensory blueprint like there usually was, too many bits were missing; places, voices, interactions, all painfully muddied. This was bound to happen at some point when he spent most of his time at social events pretending to be more drunk than he actually was, fearful that too much of something good would make him vulnerable.

So mastering the art of making one glass of whiskey last an hour had been a necessity, one that would keep his senses clear and his friends safe, one that apparently now he was paying for through sheer lack of practice. 

But memories were coming back to him slowly; like the taste of whiskey in Karen's laugh as she pressed against him at the pool table, or Foggy's infectious jeering when Matt had sunk the 8 ball, followed by a high five that Karen had to guide his hand to. He could remember Elektra too, whispering in his ear to tell him that she'd lifted Dex's phone and that they would be wise to leave before he noticed.

_ "Stop being so Catholic Matthew."  _ she'd said in answer to his disapproving expression, rendering him like putty in her hands as usual.

And later.

_ Later. _

How could he forget that?

When Elektra had dragged him to where her car was parked outside, barely hidden in a shadowy corner of the courtyard. She'd fumbled for her keys, laughing too hard, dropped them once, then twice.

Too much wine he'd thought, or maybe just the right amount.

Her dress had slipped up so easily, eager hands on his zipper, unwrapping him just enough for access. He'd taken her in the back seat, rocked the car with his thrusts.

_ Matthew Matthew Matthew. _

Rain, on the roof clapping to the sound of her coming apart.

After, Karen had commented on the slantedness of his tie before straightening it with affection.

_ "What have you been up to Murdock?" _ All silky with raised eyebrows.

He'd nearly blushed then, he remembered that too.

Then sometime after a whiskey that he probably should have sipped slower, Marci had shown up. Unfashionably late. Lots of awkward flirting, everything that Matt associated with her and her never-emptying Martini glass. He'd grown accustomed to the deafening roar of her and Foggy pretending not to like each other; all good and well until Karen had joined them and someone who he couldn't remember had said something about blondes and types in the same sentence. 

Cue to leave.

Walking both of them home in the pouring rain seemed like a good idea at the time — not that he'd been much use to anyone with his senses swaying the same way his legs were. When they were safe back at their room Matt had offered to leave despite Karen's hands around his arms being an almost a semi permanent fixture by then — not that he minded — and it really was difficult to peel himself away when her voice was so irresistible, too full of care and concern, because —  _ "it's the middle of the night Matt. You can walk back all by yourself."  _

He'd argued jokily that it didn't really matter to him what time of day it was because in his world, everything was always black — untrue, but he said it anyway for the way he knew it'd make her laugh.

So they'd ended up here, more or less, the three of them in Elektra's bed. Drunkenly slipping out of dampened clothes and into drier ones as Elektra passed comment on how —  _ "his dad was a boxer."  _ When his half naked body drew the attention of too many eyes.

On a different day he probably would have felt guilty about allowing himself to let his guard down around the people he cared about, but this morning, guilt felt like far too complicated an adversary, like sand running through his fingers that he couldn't grasp even for a second without getting dizzy, so he didn't bother trying. 

Instead, for a change, he decided he would savour the moment.

Karen twisted on to her back. "Matt?" He'd been listening to her wake for the last few minutes as he pieced together the fragments of the night, now he supposed she was desperately trying to do the same, Matt sensing her confusion in the little crease that formed between her brows.

"Hey."

"Hey." Her hey went up at the end, funny how one syllable could ask a thousand questions. "Uh.. do you..remember…."

"Some," Matt chuckled, trying to ignore what his senses were telling him about her closeness, now that she'd turned, the rounded flesh of her ass was pressing into his hip, something which she probably hadn't noticed nor intended but for him, it was enough to force him to forget how to breathe. "It's a little hazy," he added.

Karen rubbed her eyes and fumbled for her phone on the bedside table. Matt tried to focus on something else other than the fact her heart rate had already double timed since she woke. "Can you believe I've got class in four hours?" The phone was dropped again on the hard surface as quickly as it was picked up.

"Class?" Matt said, "on a Saturday?"

She sighed and it turned into a yawn. "Apparently I'm a sucker for torture," she said, "extra curricular torture." There was a nervous shakiness to her voice that was even more obvious when she whispered.

"Wow. I thought I was a nerd." He let his smile cut into his cheek on the side that was facing her, wincing on the other, the weight of Elektra on his arm starting to make his hand tingle. With what felt like a herculean effort, he attempted to wiggle the fingers of his right hand but found them mostly stiff and numb. When he did move, looking for light relief, he groaned too loudly as hot blood gushed back into starved tissue.

"Matthew…" Elektra woke. Matt stilled her already roaming hand before it could make anymore of a downward path over his abs.

"Elektra."

"Oh." She looked up, "Hi Karen."

"Morning."

" _ This _ is an interesting arrangement."

Karen averted her eyes and Matt restrained the twitch of his lips.

"We didn't fuck did we?" 

Karen laughed and then reddened. "No," she replied sharply, nearly at the same time as he did. 

" _ Yeahhh _ I think I'd remember that," Matt argued and then grimaced, his hand coming up rub the nape of his neck, awaiting Elektra's evitable scorn and Karen's swift departure from his side but finding that it never came.

"Me too," Elektra agreed. Karen cleared her throat. In the mostly quiet room it felt devastatingly loud.

And the silence that came after that seemed to dampen the air the way a thick layer of snow might dampen the sounds of footfall on a busy sidewalk.

"I should shower," Matt said, feeling like he'd planted a seed, that given any longer might grow into something hard and embarrassing in the front of his pants.

"Me too," Karen nodded. 

"You go first."

She nodded again and got up.

Usually being blind would give Matt an out in situations like these — not that he'd ever been in a situation quite like this before — Blind people weren't supposed to be able to tell when their friends were half naked or blushing or aroused. But Elektra was lying with her face just a scant inch away from his, hooded eyes, and dimples in her cheeks like she wanted him to slip just so she could laugh.

The bathroom door closed Matt let out an unapologetically long exhale. "Go on. What?" 

She echoed him, shrugging her shoulder. _ "What?" _

"It's you," Matt protested, "not me."

"I never said anything."

"I can hear your face, Elektra."

She snorted, her hands splayed over his chest and she tipped her head as if to get a better look at his expression. "How does it feel to be sandwiched between two beautiful women? Expect this when you left that squalid little corner of New York?"

"I like my squalid little corner of New York," Matt countered, his throat tightening. 

"Yes but, be honest," she eyed him again.

He pushed air through his lips begrudgingly, knowing she was far too close for him to get away with lying. "Okay," he said, "so it's not the worst thing." 

"Mm-hm." 

"What?" Matt grinned, "what else do you want me to say?" His hands flapped against the bedsheets.

"Nothing nothing," she teased.

Matt wasn't stupid, he knew any man would be lucky to be in the situation he was in right now, with his girlfriend who didn't even seem to be jealous, that was maybe even a little thrilled at the prospect of sharing a bed with another woman. 

He also knew that Elektra had high walls, taller even than his own, topped with razor wire with a fifty foot drop on the other side that he was still struggling to navigate himself. With Karen she was different, even Matt had noticed how he'd started to care about her — feel protective of her — and it didn't seem like he was going to be able to stop any time soon.

Apparently Karen didn't scale walls, she got under them.

"You're different."

She raised her brows. "Different?"

"Yeah, around her." She gave him a look. "I dunno what it is," it was Matt's turn to tease her now. "But I like it. It's uh,  _ nice _ ."

_ "Nice?" _ She curled a finger into his fringe, hair that had been rain soaked and then dried curly and messy against the pillow. "Sounds awfully boring."

Matt chuckled. "I don't think you could never be  _ boring _ , Elektra."

A soft 'mmm' left her throat like a gust of wind before a storm, vibrated against his chest, slithered over his body to lift his chin. The heavy malaise from his intoxicated sleep seemed like it was mostly gone now. Her hand left the tangle of his hair to skim over his temple and the softened lines of his jaw.

"How do I prove it?" She asked, Matt's breath caught as she glided a hand down under the sheet just as he heard Karen turning on the faucet and stepping into the shower. "That I'm not boring."

Matt bit his lip and nodded, giving her the green light. His jaw slid on its hinges, his head twitched and she repositioned herself so that she was kneeling over his legs, shuffling downwards. "Did you think about it?" She breathed, "the three of us..." She bit her lip, peeling away the sheet from his hips. Matt dug his nails into the meat of his palms, squeezed enough to leave marks but didn't answer. "I do," she purred.

He noted her heartbeat — elevated, but steady.

Truth.

"Elektra..."

"It's okay." She reassured him. "Let me." Her nails scratched just a little as she tugged and shimmied his boxers down to spring his cock free. 

Whatever it was she had planned, Matt was pretty certain now that he wasn't going to last a second.

"Think about both of us." 

His lungs stole a breath from the air so sharp he thought he might pass out.

She gripped the base of him, licked a landguide stripe upwards, slow and savouring, dancing her tongue over the tip.

He felt himself starting to make noise already, without intending to. It felt so good he almost had to laugh as she gripped him with her lips, sunk him down to the back of her throat, hot and slick and tight. 

"Fuck. Elek —" he couldn't even finish her name. His fists rounded in the sheets, gripping — sheets steeped in Karen's scent. He inhaled it deeper, thought about touching her, having her closer, thought about kissing her too. Kissing both of them, he let the wet sounds of Elektra's hand and mouth moving up and down, pulling away and licking hungrily, punctuate the fantasy.

Maybe he would wake up soon, because this was definitely too good to be true. 

"Elektra—" His body stiffened and his hips pushed forward, charged and needy, his hands coming up to rest in her hair, not pushing — just encouraging, twirling a strand of it for the way it felt like silk around his finger.

Then she did something absurd with her tongue and he felt her eyes flick up to meet his face, full of dangerous intent. "Ugh — fuck," he tapped her shoulder as a curtisty, "fuck, keep… _ oh _ . Keep going — " she stayed there, surrounding him with warmth and pleasure as he spilled into her mouth and she lapped up every last drop he could give her with his head lulling back against the pillows, his orgasm consuming him for a glorious few seconds, loud enough to silence everything — the only thing that ever silenced everything. 

After, he was sinking, swaying — drunk again, but a different kind of drunk this time. And luckily for Matt, before he'd fully recovered, and before Elektra could say something smarmy about how fast he came or ask him who or what he was thinking about, Karen was already getting out of the shower and they had to do their best to scramble for cover.

"Should I ask her?" Elektra said, her tongue darting out to skim over her teeth.

_ Jesus, _ she was serious? He'd honestly just assumed she was just trying to get him off.

"I uh, I don't…."

She smiled and kissed him, grabbing a towel and heading for the bathroom. "It's just an idea."

  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My boy Matt needed this okay 😂


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So for anyone who hasn't read the previous few chapters recently, a recap:
> 
> At the party, Elektra and Matt spotted Dex Poindexter and immediately Matt felt he recognised him. Did Dex have something to do with the recent attempted assault on a student where Matt had intervened and one of the perpetrators had gotten away? 🤔
> 
> Make no mistake, the plot here is thin. Mainly, I just needed an excuse to get Karen and Elektra doing things together that Matt would disapprove of 😏

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this has taken me ages to update guys! I promise I'll be working on this story much in the next few weeks :)

"It's just an idea."

Karen could hardly believe what she was hearing. 

"What is?" She replied _, "breaking and entering?"_

Elektra blew air from between her lips. "Hardly."

"You're dating a _lawyer_ , Elektra."

" _Soon-to-be_ lawyer," she corrected. 

Karen huffed loudly. Why did she always do this? Why did she always have to invite her to a trouble party when she was on her way to class? 

"You know I'm barely off the hook for the last time I turned up late?" She said, starting to think that maybe Ben Ulrich was right, maybe being around Elektra this much _was_ distracting her from her studies. "Besides," she added, "how do you even know where he lives? 

She pulled out what Karen quickly realised was a phone from her back pocket and tossed it into the air cockily, catching it again in her palm. "I might have borrowed a little something from him."

" _Jesus..._ you stole his.."

"— No. I borrowed," she corrected again. 

"Borrowed suggests you intend on giving it back." Karen raised her brows.

"I'll deliver it _personally."_

Oh good, now they were back to where they started.

"Okay." Karen stopped walking, paced a little back and forth over the same spot. "So what, you think he's got something to do with what's been going on? That attack on that girl? The guy in the mask? Did you find something out?"

_Why did she even care?_

"I don't know," Elektra said, "but don't pretend like you haven't. I know you Karen," she purred. "You're smart, and sneaky. You love all this."

Karen stuttered, "I… I don't…" 

Fuck.

She felt her face wince in defeat, and Elektra was giving her that slanted smile that reeked of the words _'I win'._ "Okay so what if he's dangerous? Shouldn't we call the police?" 

"On what grounds?" Elektra touted.

Karen winced again. 

"C'mon...," Elektra rolled the next words off her tongue like they were wrapped in caramel, sweet, and sticky and oh so tempting. "It'll be so much fun."

* * *

And it didn't really matter what kind of shiny you tried to dress it up in — Breaking into _'weird baseball guy's'_ flat as Elektra has so aptly named him, was a crime; pure and simple in the court of law. And yet Karen was following Elektra around like a lost puppy right into the midst of it.

She didn't even know why.

When they reached his door, after a few minutes of clicking and nervous checks of her shoulder the lock fell open and Elektra slunk through the gap, moving effortlessly like a shadow, Karen following close behind.

"Where'd the hell you learn to do that?" She whispered checking over her shoulder one more time before she closed the door softly onto its latch. 

"Girl scouts," Elektra lied. God knows where she'd actually learnt it. She certainly wasn't the sort of girl scout to be seen dead selling cookies — 

Unless maybe the cookies were salted… or poisoned.

Speaking of cookies, Dex definitely was not the standard cookie cutter student. When it came to tidiness and general upkeep, well, his room was about as far away as you could get from normal.

It was so immaculate, it was jarring. Everything had its place — every object, lined carefully up with the next, every surface gleaming. 

It was weird. It was _really_ weird.

Elektra sauntered towards the bed, carelessly ran her fingers over a few things. "This guy really needs to get laid."

Karen wanted to laugh, because it certainly felt true, but the sound of joy didn't seem to suit this place — it didn't belong here. 

So she just smiled instead, making herself useful by opening the door to the wardrobe. "What are we looking for anyway?" She asked then, cringing at the sound of Elektra landing ass first onto the pristine bed, the covers suddenly springing with relief from their tightly pulled corners. "Jesus...you know if you carry on he's gonna know someone's been here."

"I wonder where he keeps his baseball bats.." 

Karen rolled her eyes, paired it with a disapproving sigh. _"Why?"_

"In case I have to hit him with one of course." 

It was hard pretending like Karen didn't find the thought of that amusing; but she'd been doing a lot of that lately — trying to be the responsible one; trying to outgrow the version of herself that had left her family in tatters back home.

"I think this is a bad idea," Karen protested lightly, her hands were skimming over clothes, through papers, "we're not going to find anything, it's pointless, and _illegal."_

Elektra half rolled off the bed then, pointing to a box on the lowest shelf.

"What about that?"

Karen took out the box. It was an old tattered shoe box by the looks of things — weird. Out of place, she thought.

Elektra was shrouded at the back of her shoulder now and Karen was acutely aware of her slight hand hooked around her arm and excitement she could feel resonating through her chest.

Inside the box, tightly packed in uniform rows, were old cassette tapes, at least 50 of them, each one labeled with specific dates and coded with seemingly random letters. On top were dozens of photographs.

"Who do you think this is?" Elektra picked one up, flipped it in her hand and squinted. "She looks older than him."

"His mother?" Karen suggested.

Elektra made an unconvinced "hmm" sound. "It's the same room in every picture."

"Yeah," Karen agreed, glancing over a few more. "Kinda looks like a therapist's office."

"Who has this many pictures of their therapist? And in a creepy little shoe box too?" Elektra laughed and Karen felt it was her place to reign her in with a scornful look.

"You think this is him and his therapist?"

Elektra shrugged. "I don't know. You're smarter than me. what do you think?"

Karen could feel her cheeks starting to glow.

Why? 

Probably because they were committing daylight robbery...obvious really. 

Yeah, it was probably just that.

"Maybe.." Karen considered, "or maybe he just doesn't have anyone else... or maybe he's in therapy because something really bad happened to him."

Elektra tossed that thought over her shoulder and tutted. "My soul _aches_ ," she said, sarcasm rooted in the rolling of her eyes before she smirked carefully as if it would soften the words.

It did. Although, Karen never really bought into all that anyway — Elektra could be cold, ruthless even, but she cared more than she'd ever let on, maybe even a little too much.

Karen ran her fingers through her hair as she stood there, trying to decide if she should vomit out the words as they were coming to her.

"I spoke to her," she said eventually, biting her lip. The meaningless swirling of information in her head was beginning to stick together like it always did, forming little clumps, little connections here and there.

"Who?" Elektra asked.

"The girl who got attacked last week." 

"You spoke to her?"

"I bumped into her." — that was a lie — "at the library." Karen sat on the edge of bed. "Sarah, her name's Sarah." 

"And?"

"And.." Karen dragged out, "I asked her a bunch of things. Just casual talk, you know... Asked if she was okay and stuff. And turns out, the guy that the masked man put in hospital? That was her abusive ex boyfriend."

"Good," Elektra said, her lips curling again.

"Yeah, but… the weird thing is… " Karen paused, "...she said she was afraid she was being stalked."

"By her ex?" 

"Yeah...maybe… I don't know." It didn't add up. "Now I think about it, it can't be him…because he only just got out of hospital." 

"It's somebody else? The second attacker?" 

Karen hadn't noticed until now that she was drumming her fingernails neurotically on the side of the box she was holding. She let out a small laugh when the pieces finally clicked and Elektra glanced over to her, wide eyed. "I asked Sarah what she was studying." Karen said, feeling her own voice shake. "I didn't think anything of it at the time but…"

"What was it?"

Karen glanced back down at the box before she said — "Psychotherapy."

Elektra turned to her wearing a thick, hooded expression like maybe she was about to… well, she didn't kiss her, that would have been… _unexpected,_ but Karen couldn't have forgiven herself for mistaking the look.

That thought soon left her when footsteps in the hall made her jump.

"Shit. Company." 

Elektra frantically patted the bed straight — it wasn't perfect and he was definitely, _definitely_ going to notice, but they didn't have time for anything better. She tossed the stolen phone in a bedside drawer — he was going to notice that too — and Karen shoved the box where it came from, slid the doors shut and followed Elektra into the bathroom. 

"Out here," Elektra ushered as she held her hands out for Karen to step into. The thought of throwing herself through a window that was barely the width of her body was making her nervous about the undignified possibility of getting stuck — even if she didn't, it was still going to be an ungraceful descent on the other side. 

Luckily for them, they were only on the ground floor. 

Elektra braced and encouraged her upwards as Karen shimmied head first through the gap; got her leg through somehow too and tried to ignore the scrape of splintered wood and rough brick on her palms and shins as she tumbled through to the other side. The front door was opening now, the latch catching as it shut again, footsteps nearing the place they had just stood moments before

" _Hurry_ ," Karen whispered harshly. She hung her arm inside, waited for Elektra to latch on to it and pulled when she felt her weight on her wrist. Her face appeared at the window, grinning.

"Who the fuck are you?" Dex's voice boomed out from inside the tiny bathroom.

 _"Shit shit shit —_ Move! _Move_ —" Karen pulled — adrenaline spiked in her veins, rising like a helium balloon to fill her chest, tightening and strengthening every muscle in her body as she heaved. A sound came out of him as Elektra kicked what Karen was pretty sure was Dex's face, breaking free from his grip around her ankle, laughing hotly while she did. 

All of this was just a game to her. 

But Karen caught herself laughing too, even if she didn't want to, and they fell, Elektra landing in a heap on top of her

 _"Woops_.Better run," she smirked. 

And they did. They ran. Slipped around the corner twice, a blur of visuals and pounding feet and strips of her hair in her face until they were nearing campus again, stopping only to catch wind under the cover of some brushes.

"Holy shit," Karen panted, " _holy shit."_

"Not quite how I planned it." Elektra panted back.

"No? How _did_ you plan it?"

She shrugged. "Okay so maybe I didn't exactly plan it."

Karen didn't know how she could be so casual; if she didn't know better she'd have assumed she did this sort of thing for living… 

Karen sank to the floor, rocked her head back against the wall and closed her eyes in an attempt to slow down her heart.

"Jesus, Elektra we nearly…"

"Relax, he didn't see our faces."

Karen knew it wouldn't take much for him to figure out who they were — Elektra was _distinct_ in her appearance; not many students wore black high heel boots around campus — the footwear of choice for a silent, quick getaway robbery.

"You know my lecturer thinks you're a bad influence." Karen breathed after a moment. Elektra slid down to meet her on the ground, her knees too close and bumping hers. 

"And am I?"

"Yes," she agreed. _"Yes."_ Karen opened her eyes and changed her mind about saying how much she liked it — how much she liked _this_ — because that would mean admitting a truth about herself that she wasn't quite ready to welcome home.

That truth had already done enough.

But maybe it was the lack of oxygen, or the adrenaline, or both but there was something — A tension, she supposed, between the two of them; a thick coalesce of their closeness, their synchronized breathlessness, held together by that curious look Elektra always had when they we doing something bad together — the intimacy of that, because it was intimate.

And Karen hadn't felt anything like that in a while.

"Does Matt know about all this? What you get up to?" Karen asked instead, air still burning hot in her throat as she fought out words in favour of breath.

"Some."

Karen nodded doubtfully.

"He doesn't know about the _you_ part."

"The _me_ part?" 

"Yeah, you." Elektra eyes traced a languide line from her toes all the way back up to her face. "Karen Page," she purred, "sweet little _innocent_ Karen Page."

Karen chuckled and then blushed _hard_. Her skin had already given her away. _"Oh."_

"Oh," Elektra echoed the sound, moving her hand towards Karen's face to tuck a messy strand of hair back behind her ear. "I don't think I have the heart to break it to him." She finished.

Karen was quiet for a moment. She'd had enough time to recover from their escape, but her lungs were still straining. "You have a heart?" She teased. 

Elektra smiled and her dark eyes flickered. "Occasionally."

Karen caught herself glancing down to look at her lips when she shouldn't be; they were so close… arms touching, leaning against each other… but then a noise in the bushes in front of them caused them both to jolt, scrambling to stand as the leaves ahead of them rustled with activity.

Part of her was glad, part of her was a little disappointed.

A voice moved closer. 

"I — _we — oh God._ I have a presentation in five… oh _Jesus_ — minutes…"

Elektra shot a look at Karen.

 _"Forgive me Lord for I am weak,"_ the voice said, moving closer still, interrupted periodically by sloppy kissing sounds. Karen could just about recognise it.

"Matt's never gonna forgive me.." the voice breathed, "if I'm late… for the —"

"Foggy Bear sweetie, I'd really appreciate it if you didn't talk about Matt while I'm trying to get you off."

Karen clamped her hand over her mouth which did little to keep in the slurp of laughter she inhaled and then spat out; loud enough for them both to hear. 

"Keeping it classy as always I see Marci." Elektra called out. 

_"Oh my God…"_

Foggy flailed, panicked, scrambling to put his fly back together, which only made it funnier.

 _"Jeezusss_ ch— What — what are you two doing hiding in the bushes like that?" Foggy spat out accusingly. "Shouldn't you be in class?" 

Karen couldn't speak. 

Elektra put her hands on her hips. "Shouldn't _you_ be in class?"

Marci gave her a dagger stare — "what we do in the bushes is none of your business Elektra." 

Karen pinned her eyes to the ground. "Um, Hi Foggy... _Marci."_ She gave a pathetically small wave.

This was very awkward.

"Elektra's tainted you K," Foggy said, "I thought you nice. Not that sneaking around in the bushes type."

Marci turned her glare towards Foggy. "You thought she was _nice?"_

"Not like that," he stuttered, "oh Jeez, look I'm not really thinking straight right now." He pointed at his crotch. 

It was starting to get pretty dark in this hole he was digging them all into.

"I just meant you know, not like… " he made a friendly gesture towards Elektra.

"Oh nice. Thanks for that Foggy. I'll take that as a compliment."

"You're welcome. And if it's any consolation, Matt loves all that." 

Elektra was looking increasingly impatient, but Foggy was walking away.

"No I mean really, Elektra," he yelled back, "the crazier the better!"

"I'm gonna kill you Franklin."

"That's it! Just like that!"

Karen burst into another fit of laughter.

"Anyway... love to stay... but, presentation! Gotta go!"

"Not a word to Matthew, you hear." Elektra was putting on her scary voice.

"A word about what, Elektra?" Marci didn't look as convinced, but Karen waved politely anyway as they disappeared again through the leaves, Karen turning back to look at Elektra before she said;

"Okay, now I _seriously_ need to get to class."

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted them to kiss so bad but technically that would be cheating on Matt so.... Maybe next time 😏


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A short update that has no other purpose except to demonstrate that Elektra is very bi

Karen may as well marry that laptop, the way she was always looking at it. 

And this working in silence business she'd agreed to was really starting to drag a now.

Elektra was bored. 

But Karen? She was content, sat at the other end of the bed, head down, tapping words out like her life depended on it, and the funny thing was she probably thought Elektra was working too, when what she was actually doing was hiding behind her own laptop screen, picking off the remnants of her black nail varnish, and well —

Looking at Karen.

And Elektra wasn't really one for thinking that things were 'adorable' or 'cute' but there were some things _she_ did when she was concentrating that she could appreciate for their aesthetic value, she supposed.

Like the way she always frowned when she was reading something interesting, or getting deeper into a story, and the way she always haphazardly tucked her hair behind her ears, but not quite firmly enough, so it would constantly fall out again.

"Mercer..." Karen murmured to herself then. The first word she'd spoken in about an hour. _"Mercer."_ She chewed over the name again. 

What on earth was she talking about? 

"Eileen Mercer," she said, "used to work at the Riviera Psychiatric Institute." She tapped her nail on the screen. "That could be it."

Elektra rolled her eyes. "Really? Are you still? — " she was _still_ researching that asshole. "Remind me, who exactly is the stalker here?" 

Karen's eyes darted up.

"I mean when you think about it, that's all a reporter is, right? A stalker with overheads." She was teasing. 

Karen's mouth opened and then shut again. "That's actually really mean Elektra." Karen gave her a look, but she was still smiling.

"You know this guy could actually be dangerous right?" She added with some concern.

"And you think he's going to kidnap you or something?"

"Maybe, I dunno." She shrugged, "if I had my gun…" she shrugged again.

Elektra smirked. "Calm down, Page, no need to start putting holes in things." Although she would quite like to see that. "I'm sure the _masked man_ has it all under control."

"How do you know?" Her eyes snapped up again.

"I just know," she said knowingly, _knowing_ that that was a dangerous way to say anything around to-be reporter Karen Page.

But Karen didn't press further, instead she just smiled. "Well he can come save me _anyday."_

Interesting. 

"Been dreaming of prince charming have we?"

Karen made an appeasing 'mmm' sound. "He's just… I don't know," she cast her eyes to the ceiling dreamily, "badass, I guess."

She could see it in her head now — _"Karen Page thinks you're a badass."_ She'd never hear the end of it.

But there was an opportunity for fun here somewhere, a chance to get a little _hands on._

"Rather than relying on a _man_ to come save you," she proposed, with emphasis on the word _man,_ "why don't I teach you something useful?" 

The shadow between Karen's brows deepened. " _Like?_ "

Elektra shrugged, unperturbed. "Simple things," she said, "self defense, how to crush a man's skull. Stuff like that."

Karen laughed. 

But no, seriously, she could teach her that, if she wanted to, although Matthew probably wouldn't approve.

"You know self defense?"

"Mhm. You might say that, yes." Elektra loved being underestimated, by men, by anyone.

"Well, sounds useful," she agreed, "I guess I'd be interested."

"Good, I'll show you then." In that moment Elektra shifted forward and pushed Karen down, straddling her lap. She went easy.

"What are you —"

"Lesson one," she breathed. "Get out." Elektra pinned her wrists. 

"What?!" Karen squirmed.

"Go on, look," she said, "I'm a man. Attacking you, look at me attacking," Elektra used her weight to bounce the mattress slightly. "Get out, save yourself." Her hair fell out from her ears and brushed Karen's face. She blew air from between her lips.

"You're meant to be teaching me aren't you? Not beating me up." Her voice sounded bloated because her head was hanging slightly off the end of the bed and blood pressure was already flushing her pale cheeks pink.

"I want to see if you figure it out," Elektra grinned.

Karen tutted and looked to both her wrists, giving them a tug to see if she could break free; but Elektra was strong. Stronger than she looked.

"I don't want to hurt you," she said.

That was cute. 

"Trust me sweetie you won't."

Karen wriggled then, "fine," finding a new lease of energy and bucked her hips; Elektra fell forward sharply and Karen snorted out an: "ohmyGodsorry," their hair mixing together now that their faces were closer, swirling gold with strips of coffee-black 

"Mhm-hmm," Elektra panted. "Not bad, Page. Try harder."

Karen gritted her teeth and let out a short growl of exertion. "I can't," she seemed to give up. "I guess I'll just _die,"_ she said, letting out a defeated laugh before relaxing again Elektra's hands.

It was a mistake to let go of her wrists.

There was a flurry of white hair, and unexpected elbows and laughter as Karen sat up abruptly, nearly headbutting Elektra in the process, a hand coming up to protect her nose that felt like it was on the cusp of bleeding. Karen had gotten her the best part of flipped on the mattress and was holding her down by both her shoulders.

"Does that count as a win?"

Elektra bit her lip. "If you count dirty tactics, yes," she reached up and held the back of her neck, feeling her body tense. 

Karen met her eyes; they were gorgeous this close, obsidian black pupils against an icey blue halo. 

She could kiss her — she could just do it. 

They were so... 

"Elektra.." 

She was staring.

"Make out with me."

"What?" 

"Make out with me," Elektra repeated, airier this time, already closing that impossibly stretch between their mouths. When they touched Elektra felt Karen sigh, in protest — in relief, whatever. She didn't care.

Kissing Karen was different. It was soft, and tentative and curious. But after a few moments of their lips being pressed together Karen pulled away.

"Elektra, I can't. You're with Matt," she said obviously.

"Don't worry about it."

"It's cheating, Elektra. I can't do that to him." And of course she couldn't, because underneath it all, she was still good; a sweet center that ran so deep it would never wash away, no matter how many times she tried to snuff it out. Just like someone else she knew.

Elektra slid her hands to Karen's waist — dipping under the hem of her T-shirt.

"Do you like him?" She asked, as Karen's expression only grew more confused.

"Do I like who?" 

"Matthew," she breathed against her collarbone. "Do you like him?" 

"Of course I like him?"

 _As a friend_. "Not as a friend," she clarified and tried to kiss her again but she pulled back. "I mean would you fuck him?"

She sat back further, wide eyed and pretty. "You can't ask me stuff like that, Elektra. It's not fair."

But Matthew would know. What she wanted. If he was here, he'd sense it.

"I want to know," she pressed daringly, "because he likes you," she moistened her lips and rocked temptingly in her lap. "I like you." 

Karen froze, thinking, probably. All she had to do was say yes. 

Her eyes flickered down and then back up; she opened her mouth to speak and then a noise caught both their attention, and she turned her head away.

Elektra had had one ear on the door for a few minutes now, footsteps had passed in the hall, paused at the door then she hadn't heard them walking away.

"That asshole," Elektra muttered.

She caught a flash of Karen's panicked expression as she climbed off her, diving towards the door, fast — because that was the only way he would catch him — he would hear her coming.

And sure enough.

_"Matthew."_

He was half turning away, bumbling like an idiot. 

"Sneaking about outside girls rooms now are we?" 

Matthew stuttered, but with his face. His eyebrows shot up above the square of his glasses and his mouth slackened.

"I uh.."

"Well what are you waiting for?" She dropped her voice to whisper, "come in." Trying to drag him but finding him rooted to the floor. "It'll look even more weird if you don't," she added — as an encouraging sort of threat.

"I can't," he said. "I have a problem." He directed his voice downwards. Answering the question of why it looked like he was standing guarding the door of a night club; his wrists crossed over the bulge in his evidently too tight jeans.

Elektra stepped past the threshold of the door and closed it behind her.

"You were listening weren't you?" She hummed, confirming what she suspected anyway.

"I heard my name," he said innocently.

"So you heard the part where I —"

" _Elektra,"_ Matt hushed her. Rude. "Don't—" he puffed out his cheeks, frustrated, flustered _._ "I need it to go away."

That would be a shame. "But we could put it to good use." She ran her hands up over his shoulders as his latched predictably, as they always did on to her waist.

But when he leaned in to kiss her, he paused just a scant inch from her lips and then pulled back again.

What was it with everyone doing that today?

"You smell of her." He said.

And suddenly there was something wild swirling in her gut and burning unbearably hot on her skin. And they were standing in a hallway, with people milling around and this was _indecent_ ; not that Elektra was the kind of person to concern herself with the should and the should not's on any other day. "What's it like?" She had to ask. "Kiss me and tell me what it's like." 

This was one of those occasions where Matthew's senses were a privileged and _God_ , she envied him for it. 

She could have swallowed him up right there; carelessly, without a second thought, when he put his mouth on hers and _moaned._

But sadly, or maybe not sadly — all good things came with interruptions.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you don't fight before you fuck, Are you even fucking? — Elektra, probably.
> 
> I'm trying to decide if Karen needs to know about Matt's senses before they get it on and it's a hard call so bear with me 😂😂


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here goes nothing 🤦....

Karen wasn't sure what exactly drove her feet towards the door. 

Curiosity, maybe? That was reason she ended up in most places.

Or maybe it was more selfish than that. A hedonistic urge forged by the aftertaste of Elektra lingering in her mouth and the heat imprint of her on her body, fading quickly now in her absence.

Matt startled when she opened the door, Karen did too. Looking at him after what had just happened caused a sharp stab of guilt to cut through her chest.

"Oh, uh. _Hi_ Matt."

A beat or two of painful silence passed before Elektra put her hands on her hips and said, "for god's sake you two," rolling her eyes so vehemently that Karen was sure Matt would be able to sense it. 

"Let's just do it."

Karen's eyes went wide.

That, accompanied by the noise that Matt made — something akin to choking on a piece of popcorn.

"Let's do what?" She asked ignorantly.

Sex. She meant sex. Like, right now sex — Karen wasn't stupid.

"Don't get all innocent with me now, Page." 

Matt fidgeted with his cane. "Elektra, Karen's probably busy studying. You can't just…"

"Now?" Karen asked. 

Elektra made a face at her that only drove home the guilt she was still harbouring over Matt. "See, Matthew, Karen gets it." She turned to Matt and adjusted her tone to something sweeter. _"Please,"_ she said. And that, Karen supposed, was how she always managed to get her way, Matt's whole demeanour visibly softening at the sound of it. 

But he said nothing in reply, instead his mouth just hung squarely open and then he cleared his throat and straightened out his shirt that didn't need straightening, eventually moving but only with the yank of Elektra's hand wrapped firmly around his wrist.

Meanwhile, Karen was weighing up the possibility that none of this was in fact real as both of them stepped towards her and she walked backwards without argument until her thighs inevitably bumped into the mattress, sitting back down into the dent she'd made there earlier. 

In this particular moment, the road between sitting here with both of them fully clothed, and actually _fucking_ seemed like an impossible stretch — a fantasy. Like she'd been thrown out of orbit, with too many buttons being pressed all at once — it felt good. It felt exciting, but she was so overwhelmed that she was unable to act on any of it.

It did seem like Elektra had a plan, though. And so it was her who first knelt on the bed next to Karen. "Just pretend we didn't get interrupted," she whispered persuasively, "easy peasy." She did make it _seem_ easy; already clambering forward to plant a tempting kiss on her lips like nothing had happened.

But this time all Karen could do was sit there and _be_ kissed, because she was too aware of Matt standing there, and the fact and _couldn't see them_ but he must know, he must..

"What about… erm.." 

"Oh, he knows.." she said simply. Matt cleared his throat again the same way someone might do if they were third wheeling on the outskirts of a conversation.

It was all kinds of uncomfortable.

"Matt…" Karen offered sympathetically, "do you want to.. erm. Sit?" She patted the bed and he responded by taking off his glasses — he was completely different without them — softer, kinder. He came to rest gently beside her, putting her in the middle.

"So we're really doing this, huh?" Karen chuckled, hoping the nerves weren't too obvious in her voice. It really wasn't like in porn — not that she wanted it to be like that. What it was, though, was awkward — but to her relief Matt broke into a shy smile that blossomed into a white toothed, cheek-splitting grin, only highlighting the hazel in his exposed eyes.

He was blushing.

The belt of anxiety that had wrapped itself around Karen's chest seemed to loosen just a tad.

"We don't have to do anything you don't want," Elektra reassured her though her intent was more than clear. When Karen looked at her, her eyes were wildly black like she'd never seen them before; they were so all consuming that she couldn't snatch her gaze away from them.

Karen recognised it now, the feeling. Elektra was like that sensation you felt standing at the edge of a cliff, or looking into deep, unknown waters. She was the insatiable sense of wonder of what you didn't know, and the fear of what you did, all at once. 

She was the voice that dared you to jump for the thrill of feeling the wind in your hair, just once.

She was oblivion. 

"No," Karen said. "I do. I _want to_."

And she seemed pleased at that. "Good…" she said. "Matthew?" 

Matt rubbed the nape of his neck, "yeah. Um. Yes."

Matt wanted this too, then. And now Karen had permission to touch him. Which excited her, because she'd thought about it _a lot_ — how his lips would feel – his hair through her fingers.

"Can I…? Erm. I mean, may I?" He corrected himself as his hand drew closer, Karen flinching at his warm touch on her shoulder but quickly soothed by his voice, which was soft and curious and _so_ careful.

This was the part where he touched her face wasn't it?

Karen nodded breathlessly in answer and _yep,_ she was still making that mistake.

"Shit," she blushed, "I mean _yes_." She said, Elektra, pulling her into another sensuous kiss before she could think too much about anything. Matt ran his hand over her hair, his thumb migrating over the curve of her cheek to nurse the warmth that was already blooming there.

Then she felt him graze over where her and Elektra's lips were connecting.

And it was the hottest damn thing.

When she pulled back Karen found herself more aroused than she ever been in her entire life, and they weren't even out of their clothes yet.

"You kiss him now," Elektra directed playfully, the ball in Matt's throat bobbing up and down as he swallowed. 

He looked as thrillingly terrified as she felt.

"Okay, I've never, erm…" Matt stuttered before he squared himself up to her. "I've never done _this..._ before," Matt said, "not kissing, I mean…" his eyebrow quirked.

"Me neither." They had that in common then. 

"Okay," he cleared his throat. "Okay.."

She closed her eyes and found him in the dark, feather-light finger tips resting in the space behind her ear. 

Karen moaned, because fuck, Matt was a good kisser. 

Sensitive, reactive. His plump lips were as hot as the stubble that was scrapping at her chin and his tongue knew exactly how to navigate her mouth.

That on its own was enough. But then cool tipped fingers came to rest on Karen's shoulders, shivering at the press of Elektra's chest at her back and the whisper of her breath at her ear.

"You two are killing me, look at you." 

Matt chuckled, perhaps a small bit pleased with himself. Karen felt that gorgeous smile of his click against her teeth. "Good?" He asked.

She nodded. It was better than good. She was so intoxicated by the sensation that she didn't know if it was her or him, and it didn't really matter either way. 

She knew now, for certain, that she wanted them both. 

Elektra slipped her top over her head which prompted Matt to do the same, separating them all for a long fumbling moment; long enough for her to get a good look at Matt's suspiciously muscular torso, which no matter how hard she squinted, didn't match the puppyishness of his face, or his occupation, for that matter.

Not that she cared about the small print right now. She was long overdue of being out of her clothes. 

"Get naked Page," Elektra teased. "Don't be shy."

She was trying.

But there was something about Matt, specifically that made her feel extra vulnerable, even though he couldn't see her, which should in theory, make it easier.

Karen took her shirt off anyway, and her bra, all three of them topless now and sitting there, having come too far to go back, but having not gone far enough to go forward.

She surprised herself by being the first one to stand, popping her jean fly undone while Elektra watched, a dark and hooded expression flickering over her face.

After Elektra had stripped, that only left him.

The big reveal. The blind lawyer with the brains and the abs, and the, what else? Karen had been wondering.

But she didn't have to imagine anymore. He stood slowly, a certain giddiness rising to her throat causing her to clasp a hand over her mouth like she'd never seen a man naked before.

But this wasn't just any man, was it? This was Matt. Elektra's Matt, and he was he was so fucking _hard_ , and thick that it actually looked uncomfortable. A perfect cock to match his perfect body — apparently.

Karen took her sweet time taking him in, she might as well.

"And you're absolutely sure you want to share him?" 

Matt chuckled darkly but said nothing, Elektra replied with her hand on Karen's bare knee, sliding it languidly upwards. "I could ask him the same question."

Karen kissed _her_ this time, hungrily and wantingly, pushing her back on her too-small bed so her hands could skim down the narrow, taught curve of her waist. 

"Matthew," Elektra warned, "get here right now." Karen heard him move then felt the mattress dent as Elektra tugged him downwards. 

"What should we do?" She murmured. So casually; not unlike she was looking over a wine list or something.

Karen knew exactly what she wanted to try. "Can I… " her hand slid southwards over Elektra's abs, because yeah, she had abs too.

"Yes, you can," she nodded in response.

And realising that Matt didn't necessarily know what was happening Karen turned to him and put her hand on his arm.

"How do you feel about me… erm. Going down on your girlfriend?" She blushed at words coming out of her mouth, "I mean, I'm probably not very good, but…"

Matt looked stunned, but definitely not offended by the idea. "Uh.. yeah. Good — that's. Fine —"

"Matthew's a little overwhelmed right now," Elektra chimed in.

"I am," he admitted, blinking a few times. And God, he was somehow even hotter when he didn't have a clue what he was doing.

"Well you just say if you wanna take over or anything." She imagined Matt could probably do a much better job than her.

But still.

Feeling weirdly confident, Karen carried on kissing her way down until she was hovering between Elektra's legs looking back up the path she came. She watched her and Matt dance for a moment — kissing, groping, like she wasn't even there, before she applied some light pressure with her tongue to where she thought it might feel good.

"She's a natural," Karen heard her say.

Matt bit his lip as Karen slipped a finger inside her. "Yeah, uh. I can tell," he added, sounding choked up. Then Karen felt hands trailing down the dip of her back. His hands.

"Keep doing what you're doing," he said raspily.

She was trying, she really was. But it was tricky, and her technique, if she had any, was getting sloppy because Matt was distracting her. Soon his body was positioned at her rear and she had to stifle a moan against Elektra's thigh as he skimmed an expert finger or two through her slick, hot center.

Elektra let out an luxurious sound. "Can I just say...the view from up here is…" she paused before sliding her fingers under Karen's chin. "Exquisite."

Karen felt Matt pressing himself into her, encouraging her upwards, his hands reaching forward to cup her breasts where he strummed a thumb over a nipple until her back was to his chest. This time, when he kissed her, he wasn't so careful. His fist was balled up in her hair just the right side of too tight and his hand was slinking down her front to where he found her clit like he'd navigated her body a thousand times before.

She was wrong.

He knew exactly what he was doing.

A violent shudder traveled from the base of Karen's spine to the tips of ears.

"Matt…" she whimpered, "shit, that's –"

"You like that?" He asked.

"Yes," she panted, "wow, you're – you're really…" 

Karen trailed off. She couldn't think straight.

"You want her don't you, Matthew?" Elektra's sultry voice slithered over her skin like melting ice, heavy with lust, a reminder that she was there, and she was watching.

"I do," Matt admitted while he sunk his teeth into her shoulder. 

How it felt to be wanted like this. Karen didn't even know how to describe it.

"Karen, why don't you lie down and let us take care of you?" Elektra coaxed. 

The wide eyed look on Matt's face told her that he liked that idea too.

But it was that pretty face of his that instead, drew both their lips to him like a magnet. Karen twisted so she could scrape her teeth gently over a nipple, feeling for the contours of his stomach — scooping round while he was kneeling to finally get her hands on his ass. Elektra palmed his erection softly, two pairs of hands pushing him down onto his back, arms spread and lips parted against the pillows. 

"Let's look after Matt instead."

Elektra combed her fingers through his messy fringe before asking, "Any objections, Matthew?"

Karen giggled. 

"Uh. No uh...Absolutely none," he swallowed and he waited. 

Like a good Catholic boy — 

Elektra reached into her drawer for a condom and tossed it at her.

"He loves being ridden, trust me." Like she was talking about a car.

But he didn't deny it, in fact he urged her closer.

She took a deep breath, ripped open the packet and rolled it on to him.

And in a way, that small moment was theirs, just the two of them. Matt whispered to her, "you're okay?" And she nodded out a yes. Only then did she take him in her hand and carefully sink down onto him.

And God, he felt incredible.

He grunted her name, which along with the way he was filling her so well made her skin visibly flush a mottled pink.

"God that's so hot." Elektra was practically drooling. Karen made eye contact with her; peacocking a little bit — arching her back and flicking her hair over shoulder. "Yes — " she hummed approvingly while she slipped a hand between her legs. "Fuck, yes."

Karen planted her palms on Matt's chest and leaned forward, letting her hair waterfall off her shoulders. He sunk his fingers into her roots like he'd been waiting his whole life to feel the silkiness of it and she slid up the length of his cock and crashed her hips back down on to him. She was rewarded when a sudden gasp of — "oh, ugh – Karen — _God."_

Seeing his face unfold and hearing those deep hitched breaths he was taking was driving her to the edge. He pulled her in tight, adoring the way he was pawing at her hips, squeezing and mapping out the texture of her.

And just when Karen thought it couldn't get any better — any more intense, Matt murmured out a needy sounding, "Elektra, sweet – sweetheart," gesturing for her to "c'mere."

And it turned out, Matt could indeed handle two women. Very well, actually.

Because now Karen was looking at the deep groove of Elektra's spine with Matt's face buried somewhere underneath her. Any difficulty he was having from the awkward position he was in was made up for in ten fold by his _enthusiasm —_ obvious by the impossibly hot sounds he was making and the even _more_ impossibly hot sounds _she_ was making. 

Until then, Karen realised, she'd been holding back; scared of letting go or having this all end too soon. 

Matt's hand squeezed as it drifted down over her calf and Karen could tell by the way his nails left groves in her skin that it was he was close. So close.

That low-sitting tingle in her belly bloomed, driving her selfish need as she found friction, riding him hard until he fell apart with a muffled cry and she shook and trembled, their orgasms becoming nothing but a tangle of moans and gasps — jutting hips and weak arms holding up tired bodies. 

Elektra collapsed back and Karen collapsed forward and they were still, in place where time didn't matter.

Falling, with the wind in their hair.

Just for the thrill of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So writing sex is hard. Writing a threesome? It's like juggling 😂 it's really really hard.  
> This is my first time writing anything like this so I hope this didn't suck, and of course comments and feedback are always appreciated. 
> 
> Now I wonder what my poor boy Matthew thought of all this... 😂😏


End file.
